MacArthur Park to Los Angeles: Come Back! We're Safe Now!

After an intense effort to clean up MacArthur Park (above, in more peaceful times)-- long the home to gang warfare, street drug sales, plenny o' prostitution and, of course, the place to get your fake I.D.s -- city and community leaders say it's now safe to hit the park.

According to the L.A. Times, a new program will be launched this weekend to lure people back to the park (which was always beautiful at face value, as long as you didn't look close and see the bad stuff going on) through a walkathon, free paddleboat rides and walking tours.

Crime is down in the park, the LAPD's Rampart Division (hmm, we trust these guys now?) reports -- thanks in part to regular officer patrols, surveillance cameras and other changes.

That's quite a change from before, the paper notes: For years, one gang had held the northwest corner, another the southwest. The northeast corner was dedicated to the sale of false immigration papers and other documents, while the southeast served as an open-air drug bazaar. The restrooms and a tunnel were the realm of prostitutes, johns and addicts. Bloated bodies have for years been fished out of the park's lake.

Built in the late 19th century and first named Westlake Park, the open space used to be in one of the city's most fashionable districts. The area remained home to mostly middle- and upper-class families through World War II. By the late 1940s, however, the park had become the domain of street alcoholics — the first in a line of troublesome rulers. They were followed by heroin addicts, organized-crime figures from Cuba and street gangs, which fought over the turf for decades, the most vicious battles being those of the crack cocaine wars of the 1980s.

After several years of stop-and-start cleanup efforts, and now six effective months, the park is safe...but "a little bit empty."